Days Of Skin
by Etchers
Summary: A week before Sasori is going to transfer his soul into his puppet. He travels with Orochimaru to complete a mission for Pein.


_The 15th of June. _  
_Seven days until I become true art._

Pein has sent myself and my partner to kill a man named Hyoshi. According to the scroll Konan gave us, he specialises in weapons and is from Konoha. What the scroll did not say was why we have to kill the man in the first place. Although I will say, I don't particularly care. It would be interesting to know what this low level jonin did to annoy Pein. It must have been bad for our leader to send two of his best operatives to Konoha to deal with this man.

Orochimaru seems delighted with the prospect of killing a man that he knew in his home village. He is detailing all of the intricate ways he could possibly murder him. Considering we have to bring this man to the stop off point which is miles away in one piece. I don't see why he feels the need to speak as if he can somehow strangle him with his own intestines and still follow Pein's direct orders.

I am annoyed that I have to spend so much time away from my new body. I was working on it when I was dragged away to deal with Hyoshi. It is in a base near the stop off point and I loath leaving it alone. It is already my greatest work of art and I am not yet finished. Orochimaru seems intent on finding out what I plan to do with this hand-made wooden clone of myself. Although I will tell him eventually, I don't see why I should have to deal with his inane ramblings on the long walk to Konoha and back.

_The 16th of June._  
_Six days until I become true art._

Orochimaru and I travelled to the outskirts of Fire Country where Hyoshi was stationed. He spotted us almost immediately and ran away. I presumed that the soldiers of Konoha would be a little less cowardly but obviously I was wrong. I have always believed that Pein's order that we wear our cloaks on every mission was completely irrational. It just means the element of surprise is never ours.

Orochimaru seemed delighted at the idea of a chase and was annoyed that I didn't seem so enthusiastic. He ran ahead, only turning back once and signalling to me to stay where I was. I nodded happily although my happiness was probably not apparent to Orochimaru. He was already far in the distance. I suppose, I could describe his body language as gleeful although I admit I am not sure how body language can be gleeful.

Hyoshi who I presumed has been running wildly away, came in from behind me. Throwing his weight and a few kunai. I quickly dodged and summoned an early creation of mine, Salamander. The Konoha nin seemed unperturbed by my puppet and threw a kunai directly at me. I thought the man at that moment was an idiot until the kunai phased through my puppet and into my thigh.

The pain at that moment was sharp but it was hidden by adrenaline as I forced Salamander forward. I felt its head reach skin and when I peeped over it, I saw a beheaded man, falling forward. It was then I noticed Orochimaru. He was twirling the head in his hands. A thick coating of blood staining his face. The vertebrae of the man's neck flicking from side to side like a tail.

_The 17th of June_  
_Five days until I become true art_

We walked for miles until we found somewhere to camp. I carried the torso of the now rotting man. Orochimaru was too preoccupied with playing with the head to offer me assistance. The weight of my burden was putting unneeded pressure on my injured leg. Under my cloak I could see that my trousers were starting to get stained with a sticky ooze. The relentless sun in Fire Country, coupled with my heavy clothes was not helping the healing process. Hyoshi was seeping a white ooze over my shoulder from the now black hole that used to be his neck. He became bloated and a noxious gas seemed to constantly flow from him. My partner who carried the head seemed fascinated by the buzzing flies which flew in through the eye sockets (Orochimaru had poked out the eyes with one of his kunai) and then out through the neck.

We set up camp near a small village. I spent a small amount of time surveying them. Noticing quite a few busy brothels and nothing else of note. When I returned to camp Orochimaru had prepared the dinner. I ate it slowly, savouring the food although I had never taken pleasure in eating much before. In a few days, I would have no need to ever eat again. I wanted to remember the last few meals I ate.

Orochimaru tried to entertain me by telling me of a boy prostitute he paid for the service of in the town we were near. According to Orochimaru, the boy was about fifteen. He'd passed through that town, fleeing the war camps where he had been forced to fight for Kiri and had been captured and then, forced to work in the brothels. Orochimaru had paid for time with the boy and after using the child's body as he wished, he had killed him. Slitting his throat in case the boy would run to the Konoha war camp and tell them of Orochimaru's presence. He ended the story by saying 'that the boy was as tight dead as he was alive'.

At that point, I decided to go to bed. Orochimaru came up behind me and in my weakened state, due to exhaustion and my wound. I was unable to turn and push him away. He stroked my chest slowly with one hand and offered to come to my tent with me. I refused bluntly, causing Orochimaru to storm off to his own tent angrily, taking his severed head with him.

_The 16th of June_  
_Four days until I become true art._

I woke up last night at about four in the morning from a horrific dream. I've suffered from constant night terrors since my parents died so it wasn't particularly special that I had a nightmare. Oddly enough, I think this one is of note. I was jolted awake and crawled out of my tent and into the night. Even so early in the morning, there was still a foggy heat that was suffocating. The air was full of moisture and I felt like I could choke on it.  
The dream had definitely unnerved me and I was disorientated at the time. I lay down in a puddle of mud near a stream and fell asleep. The dream continued.

There was a young man with long blonde hair. I mistook him for a girl initially but as the dream went on, I realised my mistake. He was effeminate looking but there was nothing feminine in his stance or his tone. The boy was walking through a cave, the roof had caved in and there were bodies everywhere. He picked up an arm and it was then I figured out that they weren't human bodies but pieces of my unfinished a hundred puppet army. Blood dripped from the arms and suddenly all the pieces began twitching. Pulling together to form a gigantic man. He was human and decayed, black sunken eyes and hollow bulges where too many limbs had tried to fit. The monstrous creature then picked up the frightened man. Tearing him in half in one motion, his organs trailing out of him. His disconnected arms and legs falling to the ground. His head rolling along the cave floor, the eyes glassy, like puppet eyes. His body parts then began twitching and connected to the main mass. His head seemed to quickly decay, turning into a pile of black sludge within minutes. Then the creature walked ahead and I saw it was coming for me but my limbs wouldn't move, I had lost my strings. I was a puppet and I couldn't move as my master wasn't there to save me.

I woke up again to a foot digging into my side. It was Orochimaru, he looked concerned. I waved him off as I stood up and shakily made my way to the stream. Stripping myself of my clothes and dipping myself into the cool water. We had miles to walk still and I needed to relax before we set out. My stomach heaved as I stepped back into the heat and I threw up violently into the once crystal clear water. I placed my hand on my head, I had a high fever. This was going to be hard to conceal from my partner.

_The 15th of June_  
_Three days until I become true art._

The fever seems to have broken and I am still dragging the now bloated corpse to our destination. Hyoshi's body is now bulging and I can feel maggots squirm under the skin. They're calling to me in gibberish and Orochimaru seems perturbed that I am answering them.

"Akasuna no Sasori, where in the world are we? What colour is the grass in Iwagakure? Can we live with you, you're so nice?"

Speaking to them, they tell me their names but I have already forgotten. Their names carry letters that do not exist in kanji. The colours of their skins seems to change constantly, spiralling out into gingham patterns.

The road falls ahead of me and connects with my face. The ground welcomes me, I can feel the Earth breath.

Snake hands are upon me and they pull at my clothes. Looking down, my leg spits out a pink gas, yellow vapour dances from the wound.

Sleep consumes me, I sleep inside her stomach.

_The 14th of June_  
_Two Days until I become true art._

I awake at the drop off point. Touching my hand to my head, I'm freezing. I'm aware that yesterday was most probably caused by the infection in my leg. As I look down at it, the bone is exposed and the flesh seems to curl away. Parts of it have already gone black and there's a constant flow of thick yellow puss when I move.

Fortunately, my leg is nearly completely numb and I won't be stopped by pain from reaching my destination. Tomorrow I'm transplanting my soul into my puppet and I can't wait any longer. Especially considering how quickly my leg is deteriorating.

I step up shakily and that's when I notice Konan leaving with Hyoshi's corpse. His head tucked under her arm. She grimaces at me as she leaves. The body is as rotted as I believed it was yesterday. Orochimaru may have been testing serums and poisons on it while I was asleep because the skin is every colour of the rainbow.

My partner is nowhere to be seen as I walk towards the exit. Passing Konan, she nods her head in greeting but I don't return her gaze. I just quicken my pace, determined to get to the safe house a mile away. There, my new body lies.

On the way through the forest, I realise I'm being followed. I ignore it, knowing it is probably unimportant. The safe house is in front of me. Its doors wide open, my stomach is suddenly in my throat. Terrified that my creation has been stolen but when I walk inside, Orochimaru is waiting for me.

"Why are you rushing to this puppet Sasori?" The snake man hissed, pulling me towards him.

"None of your concern" I answer, kicking him away with my good leg.

"You're going to have to get that leg amputated soon or you'll die" Orochimaru uttered, nodding his head.

"I won't die, on the contrary, I will live forever" I state bluntly, sitting down to work on my puppet.

"Going to turn yourself into a puppet eh?" He finally hits the nail on the head, smiling maniacally.

Then, there is silence. I feel his body brush up against mine as he turns to leave. I tighten a screw in an arm joint and suddenly, Orochimaru is pinning me to the ground. I try and wriggle away but he has this thumb and fore-finger in my wound and I scream out in pain. The noise around me turns white and suddenly the birds twittering outside turn into unrecognisable shrieks.

I pass out and when I awake. He's behind me, thrusting into me. The pain of my leg is not half as tremendous as the pain of what he is doing to me. I can feel my rectal wall tear as he goes faster. If he asked, I would have agreed just to know what this felt like before I was incapable of discovering it.

I feel something leave me and I'm not sure if it's the part of my consciousness that is capable of remembering the last night I am human.

He finishes inside of me and my mind fills with the image of the boy he murdered in that brothel in the village. This was how it felt for him and he did not have a new body to claim. Death claimed him. I wonder whether he will kill me after this but I know that Pein would kill him for it, he wouldn't rest until he paid for taking my life. I am important to the Akatsuki, more important that Orochimaru.

The snake man stands and I turn to face him. Spitting in his face as he turns to leave.

"Just be happy you didn't give up your body without experiencing such pleasure" he retorts.

_The 13th of June_

_I Am Whole._


End file.
